Nowhere is healthcare changing as quickly as in the North. This is the 331 million euro solution

The glimpse into the future is hidden behind the front door of an outdated senior home in the center of Loppersum. The building on Hoge Heem has been converted into a ‘experience home’, where visitors can try out smart equipment and technical gadgets. All aids are intended to help elderly people continue to live independently for longer.

Take, for example, the drying machine in the bathroom; intended for the elderly who are no longer able to dry themselves. After showering, they stand in front of the 1.80 meter high device and allow themselves to be blown dry in a minute. Or what about the hob that switches off automatically, the refrigerator that warns a contact person if the door is opened less than twice a day or the meowing robot cat that makes the elderly less lonely.

Less muscle strength

“I think all those technical gadgets are absolutely fantastic,” says Thijs Nannenberg of Technology and Care Academy (TZA) Groningen, who furnished the house. “But do you know what visitors are often most enthusiastic about? From this thing here.” Nannenberg holds up a cheese slicer with the handle above the cutting blade. “You need much less muscle power to use this.”

Loppersum is not unique with such an experience home. Everywhere in the Netherlands and at every healthcare organization in the country, hard work is being done to find solutions to the challenges facing the sector: an aging population and growing staff shortages.

In North Groningen, the aging process is happening even faster, because there is also dejuvenation as many young people leave the area. And who should then take care of the average elderly people left behind? And what does that care look like?

Answers

In few other regions in the country are the answers to these questions given as concretely as in North Groningen. Compensation money for the earthquake misery plays an important role in this. Five years ago, twenty different organizations (care providers, municipalities, housing associations, insurers, the State and National Coordinator for Groningen) signed the Groningen Care Agreement (GZA).

They agreed that nine new and earthquake-resistant multifunctional healthcare buildings will be built for 331 million euros and that they will work together on innovations. The buildings will replace 22 outdated healthcare buildings in the area. Half of the money comes from subsidies and the other half comes from the participants themselves.

After years of consultation and preparation, the first pile of the first GZA building will be driven into the ground in June. In Delfzijl-Noord, the Zonnehuisgroep Noord, Cosis, Acantus and the municipality of Eemsdelta are constructing a building with 138 care studios for vulnerable elderly people and people with intellectual disabilities. “The whole idea is that the different target groups will meet each other and help each other,” says Nienke Ybema of Zonnehuisgroep Noord.

Construction frenzy

According to the director, the millions in earthquake money have absolutely accelerated the changes. “Otherwise we would have eventually found each other as healthcare parties, but the projects would have been much more spread out,” says Ybema. “Now it was: if we have to do something, let’s do something good together in one fell swoop by working on sustainable care for the region.”

The investment will cause a huge demolition and construction boom in the area in the coming years. From Delfzijl to Appingedam and Uithuizen: replacement healthcare buildings are being built everywhere that should respond to the challenges in the sector. “All healthcare organizations face the same personnel problems,” says Lentis project manager Rob van der Vloed. “If you then receive a bag of money with which you can build new buildings that will have to last for the next 30 years, then it must also be innovative and you must be willing to look beyond the boundaries of your own organization.”

Live together

It took years of meetings, but all parties involved dare to say that they have succeeded. In order to retain personnel for the sector and the region, the parties are working on ‘joint employership’. They want to make it easy to switch from one organization to another, while retaining the number of accrued contract years and the rights that come with it. The organizations are also trying to make it easier to share data with each other. “We will not only build together, but we will also live together and work together smartly,” says director Karin van der Vries of De Hoven.

In addition to organizing care differently, ‘removing barriers’ between organizations and technical innovations so that the elderly require less help, working on caring neighborhoods and villages is the fourth pillar on which the care agreement is built. Loppersum is the furthest with the commitment of residents, because the Loppersum Care Cooperative has existed here for eleven years, which now has almost 600 members. The participants declare that they want to show solidarity with each other and are there for each other when someone around them needs care.

Deployment of the villages

“By tapping into a broad network and training volunteers, you can take a lot of work off the hands of the professionals,” says Marleen van der Werff. “Many people now go to the doctor for matters that often do not belong there at all, for example about topics such as exercise, loneliness or they have a form that they do not know how to fill out. A village counter such as in Loppersum where people can go for these types of questions could very well replace this.”

Loppersum is one of the villages where new construction will take place in the coming years. Zonnehuis Wiemersheerd and the senior homes of Hoge Heem are being demolished. The technical gadgets – from robot cat to cheese slicer – in the experience home could easily return in the new building.